“Watch the sky.” Cameron straddled the line between sharing Tabitha’s boredom and having admirable patience for Colt’s endless stream of questions. The two kids were like a window into what the next few years could hold as Jewel grew into a kid. Would she be talkative? A showoff? Aloof? Smart? Waiting to find out made Shane almost as impatient as Colt. And he wanted to be there, wanted to see her go from baby to one of these little persons like the kids in the school group, full of personality.
“I don’t see anything yet,” Colt complained after ten seconds of sky scanning.
“Keep watching.” Cameron ruffled his hair.
In Shane’s pocket, his phone buzzed, but no way was he fishing it out now and missing the arrival of the jumpers. Whoever it was could wait.
The drone of a distant plane made Shane’s heart speed up, hand tensing against Jewel’s little back.
“Here they come!” someone called as a dark speck came into view. Then a few more dots, hazy on the horizon, gradually getting bigger. Shane’s pulse sped up and he jiggled the baby a little. It was pretty cool, waiting for the moment when the parachutes took on recognizable shapes.
“Why is one parachute a different color?” he asked Cameron. On the ground, there was a flurry of activity from the other jumpers and supervisors watching the parachutes float down.
“Oh crap. Oh...” Trailing off, Cameron kept her mouth a tight line as she motioned Shane closer so she could whisper in his ear. “Someone had to use their reserve chute. That’s why they’re scrambling. In case there’s a hard landing or a medical situation.”
“Oh.” All the excitement of watching drained away on the single syllable, replaced by clammy skin and a thumping heart. Even Jewel seemed tenser in her sling.
“Please be okay.” Cameron’s voice was barely audible, a whispered prayer as she kept her hand on Colt’s hair and pulled Tabitha close to her. The little family looked so vulnerable that Shane’s breath caught. Everything could change for them in the next few seconds. And Cameron had to live with this worry day in and day out, fire after fire. He’d always appreciated first responders, but now he saw the toll that life took on the families too. This job asked so much of Cameron and the kids too.
Please don’t be Brandt. Shane added his own prayer, then immediately felt guilty because no matter who it was, it was someone who mattered, and he didn’t want to wish trouble on another family. Please everyone be okay, he amended his prayer.
The parachutes swooped lower, almost to the earth, and then right when it seemed they might hang in the air forever, the jumpers started touching down. There was so much activity on the ground that Shane temporarily lost sight of the differently colored chute. More of the support personnel raced past the crowd, including two people with big first aid kits.
“There’s Daddy!” Colt pointed across the clearing to where Rich was untangling from his chute. Shane scanned more carefully now, trying to match the jumpers on the ground to the ones he’d seen ready to board the plane. No Brandt. He bit his lip hard enough to taste blood, trying to keep it together.
“I think it was Brandt,” he whispered urgently to Cameron. A semicircle of jumpers and support personnel formed around the lighter colored chute. A hush fell over the crowd, the more experienced onlookers like Cameron undoubtedly sensing something had gone wrong.
“It’s okay.” Cameron squeezed his arm. “Breathe.”
“I’m not sure I can,” Shane admitted. He couldn’t believe Jewel was still snoozing. She had to be able to feel the hammering of his heart. He’d never been this nervous before. No audition or show or recording studio had ever sparked this much terror in his gut. Brandt had to be okay because Shane had no idea what he’d do if the unthinkable happened. And not simply with the baby but with himself. He might never come back from it if something happened to Brandt, and that was sobering as hell, seeing exactly how deep into this thing he was.
All of a sudden, a cheer went up from the crowd as the semicircle parted and a very dusty Brandt holding his helmet emerged flanked by Hartman, the guy who had spoken earlier during the gear demo, and Rich. Brandt was walking slowly, and judging by the degree to which the others were hovering, he wasn’t entirely steady. But he was up. Moving toward them.
Shane could breathe again, and all those long heartbeats without oxygen caught up to him in a rush, relief so potent that his head swam. And then Brandt was right there in front of him. He was vaguely aware that Rich was there too, greeting Cameron and the kids, but most of his senses were zeroed in on Brandt as he looked him over from his sweaty hair to his dusty nose and scraped-up cheek to his battered boots. He seemed in one piece, but Shane wasn’t sure whether to trust it.
“Are you okay?” He didn’t like how breathless his voice came out or how great the urge to touch Brandt was, to the point that he had to clench his fists.
“Yeah.” Brandt rolled his neck side to side and wiggled his arms, as if he too were still in shock that he was still standing. “Hard landing. Gonna feel it for the rest of the week probably.”
“What happened in the air?” Shane almost didn’t want to ask, but he also had a driving need to know exactly how close a call it had been.
Brandt shrugged. “Main chute wouldn’t deploy. I had to use the reserve. It happens.”
“Often?” Shane gulped. He had a feeling it wasn’t the minor inconvenience Brandt was playing it off as.
“Some.” Brandt took a deep inhale. Underneath the dust, he was still a little pale. “Not to me, maybe, but even with the most careful packing and prep and equipment checking, there are still risks.”
“I know.” But that didn’t mean Shane liked this up close and personal reminder of exactly how grave the risks were. Needing to look away, he studied the baby’s downy head instead.
“Hey.” Brandt used his gloved fingers to tip Shane’s chin back up. “I’m here now. I’m gonna be okay. You don’t have to worry.”
Yeah, he did. Worry felt like the only smart thing he could do, honestly. But he couldn’t say that, could only nod. And judging by Cameron’s raised eyebrows, Brandt touching him hadn’t gone unnoticed. He’d said he wasn’t going to keep Shane a secret, but Shane hadn’t expected him to follow through on that. As Shane well knew, there was a difference between being honest with one’s closest friends and being open with a crowd of strangers. But Brandt didn’t seem to care, eyes still locked on Shane.
“Wilder! You’re sitting the climbing demo, okay?” Reid, the big, ripped guy who had Hollywood action-hero vibes and had been their guide for a lot of the tour, strode over, followed closely by Hartman. If either of them had seen Brandt touch him, their easy strides and serious faces did a pretty good job of hiding it, projecting concern but not shock. “You got your bell rung pretty good out there. We don’t want to risk your hard head any further.”